If Wales are New England - disciplined, organised and hard-headed - have England become, given where rugby is played to the west of the Severn Bridge, New South Wales - fitful, inconsistent and sacking coaches as often as they change their playing strip? Another tournament, another review for Twickenham. Brian Ashton was hired as head coach in December 2006 on a one-year rolling contract, but so often has his future been debated that he may as well have been employed on a one-week roller.

After another Six Nations campaign in which England did not challenge for the title, the Rugby Football Union has sent an SOS to Martin Johnson, the last captain of the men in white to lift a trophy. That was five years ago. When Twickenham drew up its strategic plan at the start of the decade, it made provision for a plentiful supply of silver polish. Rust remover is now needed.

Brave will be the man who offers Johnson a one-year roller. If he returns to repair England's battered chariot, the only things that will be rolling are the heads of others. Such is Twickenham's despair, that Johnson will next week be asked to write his own job description as team manager. He will be given carte blanche to appoint his own coaching team. Even if he wanted to retain Ashton, would the current head coach want to carry on after receiving a vote of no confidence from his employers? He would leave armed with a year's salary, scant consolation for being hung out to dry.

There is no guarantee that Johnson will come on board, but it is probable that he will. Andrew reported to the RFU's management board this week that he had spoken to other potential candidates, but Johnson's was the only name he submitted. Twickenham wants a leader. The criticism of Ashton is, as was the case with his predecessor Andy Robinson, that he is not a No1, but a coach who is at his most effective one pace back with a track-suit on. Which begs the question as to why he and Robinson were appointed as head coach in the first place - and why they survived reviews.

Since Johnson's name was linked with England, some of his former cronies at Leicester, such as Austin Healey and Neil Back, have been tipped to join the England coaching team, but Johnson is no fool. If the RFU's main concern about the Ashton regime is that it does not offer the players enough in the way of leadership, direction or inspiration, stuffing the management team with men from one club would be divisive, and Johnson, while needing loyalty, would not fall into that trap.

If he took the job and decided that Ashton was not for him - which is not a given, considering that Ashton was England's backs coach at the start of the decade when Johnson was captain - or Ashton was not prepared to accept the indignity of effective demotion, he would need to find a head coach who was comfortable with being second in the chain of command.

The only head coach of a Premiership club who falls into that category is Shaun Edwards at Wasps, who has been content working under Nigel Melville, Warren Gatland and now Ian McGeechan at the club. The problem for England is two-fold: Edwards spent the Six Nations with Wales and is negotiating a contract which would take him through to the next World Cup, and he has always said he considers an international position to be part-time.

He does not want to leave Wasps, but Premier Rugby has a rule, reinforced this month, which stipulates that its coaches cannot work for any England national side on a part-time basis, primarily so that they are not in a position to tap up players. That sanction has now been extended to other unions, although it is not retrospective and would not prevent Edwards from remaining with Wales. Leicester and Wasps are English rugby's top pot gatherers. A Johnson and Edwards combination would not lead to concerns over leadership, but Edwards is known for his loyalty. He would not easily break his tie with Gatland at Wales and he would agonise over leaving Wasps.

While England do need a change of direction at the top - Andrew got it wrong last December when he put the appointment of a team manager on the back-burner - the way Ashton has been treated is unacceptable, even if rugby union is now big business. If the RFU did not believe Ashton was the man to drive England forward, the head coach should have been interviewed immediately after the end of the Six Nations and released from his contract. And then Johnson should have been approached.

The way it is being played out is distasteful. When the affair is eventually concluded, the RFU should review itself, not carry on making the mistakes of Wales from the end of the 1980s.